preshow of what we are going to do tonight. and at 6:00 p.m. we go live for 90 minutes and history is going to be made. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> all right fun stuff that was victor blackwell. we'll have more straight ahead in the newsroom and it begins right now. welcome to the news room. take a look at our top stories right now. toronto's mayor says not going to resign despite photos of him reportedly smoking crack cocaine. >> and snl gets political taking on the topic of race with one of the hottest actresses on the

planet right now. >> toronto's mayor makes an admission. he says he has made mistakes but says he has no plans of resigning. he says they show rob ford smoking a crack cocaine pipe. nick the mayor did offer and apology but he was not specific about for what he was apologizing. he apologized for unspecified mistakes. we don't know what he is taking full responsibility for. he made these allegations days after the police chief of toronto said that they have digital video that shows the mayor allegedly smoking crack cocaine. mayor ford addressed that and

said that it should be made public. listen to what he had to say earlier today. i want the police chief bill blair to release this video for every single person in the city to see. whatever it shows people need to see it and people need to judge for themselves what they see on the video.

page after page it blacked out but it showed him in a crack house with three alleged gang members. the logic must be that he's certain that he is not on there. even if he was smoking a people they don't know what was in that pipe. you would think that after they had asked for him to step down. that has gone up about five

percent. it is a fascinating story. officer walked away and then came back to shoot him again. he died and now officials are trying to figure out if security changes needed there. they are looking at the security measures and have instituted in light of all that happened here. they are looking at the security and changes that they made here in fact we heard from the police chief and he talked about exactly some of these changes and how they are looking at it.

>> we are looking at the strategy that we employ every single day and in those tickets areas and anywhere on our campuses. >> and he also talked about the threat on the airports is really from the curb before you get into security. he was dropped off at the airport by a roommate that at this point officials said that he had nothing to do with what went on here.

he was sending random text messages to his younger brother to his family members in new jersey. his father reached out to authorities here and they checked his place. that was an hour after everything started happening here. it was enough for them to be alerted. they had five magazines on him here and the two guns that they possessed so far were illegally obtained before he went on this rampage here that clearly mentions him here. just tsa in general saying that he wanted to instill some fear in him, fred. >> thank you so much. appreciate that. >> so the wife of the tsa officer killed in that attack said that he was always excited

to go to work and took pride in his job when he was shot on friday. his wife said she and his two children are simply devastated. he was a wonderful husband and father, brother son and friend. he would have been 40 next week. i am truly devastated and we are all heart broken and will miss him dearly. secretary of state met and told egyptians that because it is quote policy.

kerry is the highest level official to visit the area since the ouster. his trial begins tomorrow. some big names hitting the campaign trial in the virginia governor's race. president obama recently speaking today. the message with the race so close when it comes to creating good jobs and giving moreg virginians the opportunity that they deserve. i'm going to understand what folks are going through. that is why i hope you are fired up on tuesday.

>> but the president said -- i know that there is a lot at stake for virginia on tuesday. the outcome for this election will matter. and who your next governor is will matter. virginians deserve a governor who will invest in education and ensure that all will have a chance to succeed. >> he holds a slight 4 point lead over ken cuccinelli. on friday, we learned a three judge panel struck down a key provision on mandatory contraceptive coverage.

barbara, walk us through the court's decision. >> a provision of the affordable care act requires some businesses with 50 or more employees provide coverage for birth control or pay a fine. that has been struck down now. the employer could not be forced to provide birth control. part saying quote they can either abide by the secret tenets of their faith or pay a penalty. what is the court's feeling. but the suit was filed in the name of the company and a company cannot have religious beliefs. the court wants this to move on.

thank you for bringing that to us from washington. >> now major development in a case of a teen found dead inside a gym mat at his high school. the feds are investigating.

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the woman suffered second and third degree burns. her husband faces one count of reckless conduct. >> at&t state university police are searching for four suspects officials say the 21-year-old victim is expected to be okay. the university was locked down for half an hour before the shooting last night. major developments in a case that cnn has been digging into for more than six months now. in january, officials say johnson suffocated after falling into the gym mat while reaching for a shoe. i asked him how investigators

plan to move forward. >> they say a combination of a review and investigation. he and the fbi will be looking at it and they are going to conduct their own interviews. he says they are going to treat this like a cold case going out and trying to find the people that were in the gym and around the gym and find the facts. >> there are in consistentsys everything from deeming it accidental. and it looks like foul play was involved and the condition of the body. how will they go about that? does it appear as though there may be a cover up and that being part of the federal investigation? >> that is what the family believes. they believe this was a cover up. we do not know. because that statement from the u.s. attorney was carefully written. what the specific one detail was that initiated the investigation

but we do know that there is a possibility that there could be another exhumemation there is the one from the state the autopsy and the private autopsy. maybe the fbi would want their own to find out which one is more in the right direction of what actually happened. what is next? >> the authorities fbi will be goes in and starting to have conversations with the officials there. the investigators and the people in the community. we know at the local level we are expecting the announcement of the coroner and they would look and determine if his death was an accident or homicide. it changes his death certificate and that could start a parallel

local investigation to find who is responsibiliiblresponsible. the president is trying to get himself back on track. who are they and why are they doing this? >> chief correspondent joins us next with answers. [ male announcer ] what if a small company became big business overnight? ♪ like, really big... then expanded? ♪ or their new product tanked?

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ing this week the president's nominee for a federal judge achair of the federal reserve could hit some roadblocks. senate republicans say they will block testimony due to survivors of the benghazi attack. good to see you. so you spoke to another senator today about this. why despite low ratings are they steadfast on this approach which would be construed as obstructi obstructionism? >> i'm not sure how crazy they are about this idea. even senator graham has said

this is the only leverage i've got here to level things up here. so this is also although he has pursued this forever. this is clearly also something that politically helps him in his state. when i talked to kelly who is a close friend she and lindsey graham and john mccain are referred to as the three amigos are you with him and going to block the nomination she wouldn't say yeah or nay. take a listen. >> i will evaluate whatever we need to do. i think we should be able to work this out. but we have been brushed off for too long. >> igelection day on tuesday.

new jersey governor, new york mayor's race. the president and the clintons have thrown their support if mcaulliffe were to win would this make that state which was traditionally red would it now be blue? >> it would statewide you are talking about p a swebout a swey democrats at the top. but the two u.s. senators are democrats. it is still in the contestable states for sure. at the heart virginia is a conservative place. they are going from a governor who is term limited to a man who has never held public office

before but is probably left of center on the democratic side. swing state is probably the best way to describe virginia for a while. >> thank you so much. >> thank you. >> asked cher a provocative question about her late husband her stunning reply straight ahead. weekdays are for rising to the challenge. they're the days to take care of business. when possibilities become reality. with centurylink as your trusted partner, our visionary cloud infrastructure and global broadband network free you to focus on what matters. with custom communications solutions and responsive, dedicated support, we constantly evolve to meet your needs. every day of the week. centurylink® your link to what's next.

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cher can't seem to forgive her husband sam asked this. if he was still alive today but you only had a minute to talk to

him. >> her response. how is it where you just came from. ouch. listen to this interview from a few months ago. >> when i was with sonny. i was more like when i met him i was 16 so it didn't bother when until i was like 23. it started to chaf at me. i wanted to do what i wanted to do and i wanted to say what i wanted to say and i didn't want to be shackled to someone el's oh pippion. and he was my opinion was your opinion. i thought i have to get back to myself. >> wow. so just last month cher told someone that his ghosts plays tricks on her at home.

he died in 1998. >> last year the race was cancelled because of hurricane sandy. a short time ago two kenyans took first place in the men's and women's divisions. tell us more about the two winners and the grand prize. men's winner was from kenya women's winner 2 hours 25 minutes and 7 seconds. he ran amid the 47,000 runners. it is estimated a crowd of 2.5 million people are cheering them on a long a course that spans the city's five borrows. they took hours to get over the starting line. >> that is a bear of a race.

>> so paraolympic track medalist made history as well. tell us about her story. she is paralyzed from the waist down. and she won the race and won in london, boston and chicago. this makes her the first athlete ever to win the grand slam. wow. >> that is incredible and then tell me about security and how it impacted the race at all today. given the attacks at the boston marathon back in april, they faced a stricter situation. they were told they couldn't wear backpacks and couldn't wear

bulky costumes. the goal to make this a safe race day for everyone. >> very good and glad it was. and congrats to all of the racers. anyone who attempts it and crosses the finish line. >> thank you so much. an atlanta man has broken the record for the fastest cross country drive ever. he drove from manhattan to la in just over 29 hours. he was stopped to talk on new day. >> what was the toughest part for mu? >> the appropriapreparation. i spent ten years to talk about all of the problems that come up with doing this. >> were there laser jammers or bedpans were there pit stops. >> the question is what about the cops and the question is

where do you use the bathroom. the bedpans were not required. we stopped three times for fast and five times on the side of the road. >> no arrests, no tickets or nothing? >> safety and avoidance of all of these things was a top priority. we had three people fully devoted to making sure that didn't happen. >> are you going to try again to break it? >> once is enough. i'm good here. >> pretty extraordinary. glad that it ended and no one got hurt. all safe. >> still to come in the news room. nbc's "saturday night live". the show caught grief for not having black women on its cast. and they are dealing with it with humor. next. ♪

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if you got upp early enough this morning, you may have seen a partial eclipse. you can see the full ekripclips this video taken from euganda. the next chance you have to see it will be 2016. "snl" veteran keen nan thompson said he is done playing black female characters and is protest i protesting the black women on the cast. last night snl used the guest host to respond. >> so sorry to interrupt but ep

oprah winfrey has arrived. >> what a nice surprise. >> don't you think you can go and get changed. >> why? >> oh, because of the whole, and keen nan won't. >> nope. >> well, in that case i will leave and in a few minutes oprah will be here. the producers at saturday night live would like to apologize to kerry washington for the number of black women she will be expected to play tonight. as for the latter reasons we agrey this anot ideal situation and look forward to rectifying it in the near future. unless of course we fall in love with another white guy first.

>> i'm here! >> cnn entertainment correspondent michelle turner is here. but first, let's talk about snl poking fun at it self. over what really is a serious matter. does it end with these skits and carry washington or does abc make an effort to find tall lebt? >> first of all the skit was funny. will they foe and try to find black female talent? that is the question that is out there now. hopefully they will take he'd and find someone but let's be clear about this and let's be real. you hope they don't go out and get someone to placate the critics.

it can be done there are a number of very funny african-american krcomics out there. not only did they have kerry washington playing every black female in pop culture. today they showed how many white males they do have on the cast. they had six matthew mcconaugheys at once. it did drive home the lack of diversity there. >> the question has been what will snl do? will they find anyone or find someone talented? what about those on staff and how uncomfortable about this are they trying to make an appeal to the show to do more? >> i think it is interesting. jay ferrel in the skit was one to come out and address it and say you know what we need to do

g better and there isn't an excuse for this. she is funny and out there working and ready to do this show. there are other comedians, tory heart is funny. lonni love and very funny women who are ready to do "saturday night live". keenan thompson actually started this fire storm. he is the one who came out and said lis ep there aren't black females right now because the ones that we found aren't quote unquote ready. i think there is some talk about it and hopefully this talk will lead to action. the point that has been made by the critics is yes, no one likes to hear you are not divers enough but when you are a show that addresses pop culture and some of the biggest names are african-american women it is a bit of a shame that you don't

have them on the cast. >> and how does "snl" go about looking for top talent? are there auditions? >> they go to the groups like the upright citizens brigade and second city tv and those comedy troops to look for talent. the question may go to them are those troops diverse enough. and also you know a lot of times when you have african-american women that are out working in comedy, you will hear from them that the lack of opportunity, in general is there i mean we see a lot of black female xhecomedian today all of them made their name today another way because they are working xhecomedians b

sometimes the on opportunities aren't there. >> thank you for bringing that to us. coming up next in the newsroom a new dna test could be a big turning point in the amanda knox case next. vo: it's that time of year again. medicare open enrollment. time to compare plans and costs.

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a new dna test on a critical piece of evidence in the amanda knox case could go in her favor. it focuses on a knife that police say was used in the murder of her roommate in italy. >> reporter: looks like there is good news for amanda knox. the dma tests involve a small portion of the knife that prosecutors say was used to murder meredith kurcher. they rule out the dna on the knife. experts have already been filed in florence. this knife was a critical piece of evidence in the original trial that found knox and her boyfriend guilty of killing

kurcher in 2007. the case is back in court after being reversed. both have maintained their innocence of kurchel's murder. knox says she has no plans to return to italy. >> thank you so much. so knox has opened up about the whole of deal since being back in the u.s. she published a book and spoke to cnn about finding out the moment of the murder. >> i find out the most horrible truth. now you know and you are outside and now begins another box to check. you don't react the right way. >> well. >> you don't react the right way, you are kissing your boyfriend and your friend is dead inside. you are not supposed to do that. >> not supposed to. well, i think people forget that

i did not see into meredith's room. it was in explickable that she had been murder. how, why, who, i was struggling to confront and also understanding. >> but you are kissing your boyfriend. >> well, he kissed me because i was outside in that courtyard and i was standing there looking lost and he felt bad for me. he kept close to me and was trying to comfort me and there was nothing he could say to tell me that it was going to be all right. he just did what we normally did. >> your roommates? your boyfriend, the cops, they all say the same thing. they thought you were responding weird, odd, strange. >> yeah. >> why? why are you the one who is

strange? what makes you strange? >> i reacted differently than the way people expected a young woman to react. but, to >> but to hold me to a ster stereotype of how people react to certain things is unreasonable. and it's unreasonable to assume guilt based upon a reaction i mean, my reaction was more stunned. >> life now. what does normal mean? >> i think i'm very fortunate that most people treat me just like anybody else. >> do you get that vibe from everyone that you meet?

do they think i'm a killer? do they think i'm a killer? >> fortunately, i'm not living in that mental place. that would be something that's unlivable. but at the same time, i mean, i am still living through this. >> can you still have fun? >> i mean, it's not like i'm -- my sister says that i'm still fun. when i'm with people that i trust, i have a good time. i laugh. i dance. >> do you party? >> no, i don't go to parties. >> why not? >> i mean -- >> isn't that part of normal life? >> i'm 25. i guess -- well -- just a baby. >> well, don salo said i aged 40

years in four. i'm not interested in partying. >> do you still smoke weed? >> actually, no. >> why not? >> after being in prison and seeing how drugs destroyed the lives of so many people around me, i can't get near it. >> earlier that year was that interview. so the new evidence, the new dna evidence in the knox case is expected to be revealed in court in italy this week. all right, coming up, next, the science behind -- >> hi, i'm commander chris hatfield. the first canadian to walk in space and i watched "the science behind" on cnn.

in the next hour, the president's health care law takes another hit. find out why at the top of the hour. this week on "the science behind," we take a look at chris hatfield's journey in space. he spent 144 days as the commander of the international space station. that's where he learn arned the nickname "the singing astronaut requests from this per formansz from space. >>. ♪ this is ground control to major tom ♪ ♪ you've really made the grade ♪ and the papers want to know whose shirt you wear ♪ >> that's good. yeah, that's why it went viral getting more than 18 million views and making hatfield a bit of a star among astronauts and

everyone else. now he's written a book. i spoke with commander hatfield earlier and i asked him what's one of the lessons that space has taught him about living life on earth? >> you know, we do one of the most dangerous things that anybody faces. riding up in a elevator, crawling on your hands and knees and riding a rocket to space. the real lesson from that is how do you prepare for something that is terrifying. how do you get yourselves ready? a lot of thingings scare people. how do you break things down. how do you learn the lessons in advance? how do you sweat the small stuff, every little bit, so that when something really terrifying is happening, you're not panicked or waving your arms around but, in fact, you're focused. you take all the right actions and you know how to make something successful. that was part of the one of the things i learned as an astron t astronaut. >> and that's incredible.

fear usually is the thing that stands in the way of somebody reaching for their creams. you had your as pragszs of going to space but you probably weren't thinking ant all of those inherent dangers. you were thinking about the goal which is the fascination of space exploration? how did you get passed or look at or perhaps over-look the fears. >> it comes through visualization and preparation. not just hoping things won't happen. but, actually, visualizing disaster on a regular basis. it sounds really negative, but it's not. we're in the business of disaster. you can talk your way through it, think about it and develop a set of rules and personal behaviors. so then, actually, when things go badly, you don't get that horrible rising feeling. but, in fact, you kind of feel calm. and it actually makes us optimistic. >> oh, how inspirational. quickly, let's talk about your

video of this rendition of david bowie's space oddity. there's someone who tweaked the lyrics for you. were you immediately on board with this? >> if someone asked you to sing space oddity -- >> he had to talk me into it. originally, the astronaut dies in if end of that song. but he rewrote the lyrics. i like how my voice standed on top. it really came out bigger and better than i thought it would. and the video, i think really, fredericka, the video links fant si and art with reality. of what the space station really is. that's why 18 or 19 people found it interesting, i think, just because it shows that the space station is more than just a laboratory. but it's kind of a stage for interesting human culture.

>> and among those who found it fascinating, i understand, david bowie. >> i heard recently that he said it was the best rendition of the song, ever. which is pretty high praise. >> wow, he's a pretty cool guy. >> thanks so much for being with us. toronto's mayor is defiant. he won't resign by getting caught smoking a crack cocaine pipe. charges kpexpected to file. problems on the web site now in the courtroom. a big blow to the president's affordable health care law over birth control.